Street Journal – Five Questions

Interview with Jonathan Syphax one of the creators of Street Journal – The Graphic Novel

 Colored Cover by Anibal Arroyo for Street Journal

What are the primary themes for your story?
Since much of the story takes places in the inner city during the early nineties (residue from the eighties) there is a strong theme of the importance of being resilient and preserving once own story (gift). There is also the theme of redemption that all dreams are salvageable and that peace is found in a healthy love for ones self and the selfless sacrifice of one human for another, whether it is spiritually, physically, financially or emotionally.

How well do you feel the story will cross over and do you think it will draw a huge crossover audience?
I definitely think that a crossover market is inevitable. We test marketed our product with a director’s cut at the Baltimore Comic Convention some time back and the copies sold out the first day, in a time span of about three hours due to the story summation alone, but what surprised me the most was that a large majority of the customers where of various nationalities outside of its target audience, which, being that it is a inner-city story, is African American. Individuals of an Asian descent, to Irish, to Hispanic requested the street journal pre-production copy over all other title we had for sale, some of which included sci-fi titles. We were extremely surprised and that is what, to a certain extent, ensured us that we had a very universally marketable project.

Are you the only writer or is there a co/writer involved. If so, what is his connection to the project creatively and personally?
There is a second writer, Jorge Medina. We met while taking a screenwriting course in Mercy College and formed a friendship that has endured ever since. It’s interesting, because Jorge and I were planning to form a publication company called Vision Entertainment, but I moved to Florida, so the project was put on hiatus. Immediately when I returned back to New York, we meet up again, and immediately began working on the project. From then on, Street Journal began taking life. Oh, I must also give honorable mention to Benjamin Simmons, the extraordinarily talented artist who is drawing the preview book. He is an artist who the world will be hearing a great deal from in the near future; and Anibal Arroyo, the colorist on the project who did an excellent job of capturing the theme of the story through the various color tones, both of which are great, rising talents in the independent comic genre.
In relation to the writing aspect, Jorge is a diamond in the rough when it comes to editing. I always say he saves my writing from myself, but since he’s modest, he denies it. Jorge’s has an uncanny brilliance when it comes to preserving the voice of the story and tying together free-flowing conversation. He is relentless about his attention to detail. He even walks the scenes through to ensure that the time captions are right on the button. I have a great respect for him, not just as a friend, but also as a writer/editor and feel I am working with a talent that is simply one of the best at what he does!

What form of work is it…novel, graphic novel, comic book…etc?
Originally, it was written in a play format but Jorge and I decided it would work better as a graphic novel. We are big comic fans, and Jorge especially loves the edgy, graphic novel style, the uniqueness of its look and its daring push to break contemporary norms. The story arch will be told in a six book run, each book averaging about twenty eight pages, but a preview book will be released first, including exclusive six page back-story, only offered in “the behind the scenes” issue. Eventually we will write a novel form of it, but that is in the somewhat distant future. We have a lot of projects lined up and I am a little scared of taking on a novel. I applaud novelist, great talent such as yourself who can successfully write what I consider to be, hands down, the most difficult form of writing on the planet, and then do it with the caliber of quality and grace that you and other novelist do. To me all of you are beacons of light and inspirations to the world.

What do you feel makes this different than any other inn-city tale?
Well, this story went though a host of revisions; over twenty rewrites, and further revisions over the course of five years and counting. It is filled with heavy emotional themes throughout, so much so that the drugs and violence almost take a backseat to the primary issues of abandonment, the importance of persevering, lost of identity, brake-down of the inner-city family structure, poor moral cast systems along with a host of other underlined issues.
Also, all the characters are young, Tyreke, the main character, being eighteen, his girl friend, Trish being seventeen. Melody is their two-year-old daughter and Fuzz, the supporting character is twenty-one, so the voice is that of children as they are going though their problems. It’s timeless because it is in the moment, and told, in a sense as an installment in Tyreke’s journal and therefore, in his life…a life that hopefully, while entertaining, gives lessons of inspiration that ingrains itself as an indelible classic in modern literature.

More about Street Journal – The Graphic Novel – The release date we are gunning for is early 2008, but production is taking a little longer than expected so it might be pushed back to summer 2008. The worst-case scenario would be next fall but we will keep you and the public posted. Upon its release, it will be available online, and at Midtown comic and, hopefully, Jim Henley’s Universe. In the interim, all updates will be posted on the my space page so keep an eye out. We promise you it will be well worth the wait.

Visit the creators of Street Journal at http://www.myspace.com/street_journal   

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